 By Alvin Engelke
alvinengelke@hotmail.com
The Creston Community auction will be held Saturday, December 4, starting at 6 P. M. at the Creston Community Building. It will be a good time to pick up stocking stuffers and, of course, swap yarns about deer season.
On December 11 a gentleman from the Polar Regions will be calling in Creston to talk to the younger set and those still young at heart. Everyone is invited and there will be a meal for all to partake. Those wishing to help, bring food, candy, toys, etc. should contact Connie, Rosalie, etc.
While Rick Headley bagged a nice 10-point on the ridge between Little Creek & the West Fork, many area hunters had no luck at all and the folks in Roane County reported that the harvest was down 50%. One local fellow who has a game camera at his corn feeder reported that the only critters coming to the feeder were bears and deer tracks were scarce in the Two Runs - Rock Run area. Some feel that the coyotes, who prefer fawns to lambs, thinned the herd just like they have done in the mountain counties. Others wonder if the DNR or some other agency did something to reduce the population (on the sly of course).
While most did not do well, one group of hunters was seen leaving Creston with a trailer loaded down with venison.
Ilene Wager, age 79, of Big Springs passed away. She was the mother of Wayne Wager. Burial was in the Saunders cemetery.
The report of Warren Campbell's death was in last week's column but several folks called asking that it be noted that they remembered with fondness the kind way he treated them when he worked in his father's (J. Pierce Campbell) store in Creston after World War II.
Frances Irlinne Davis, age 86 of Elizabeth, passed away. A retired schoolteacher she was the widow of Ray Davis whose folks formerly lived on Ann's Run. She is to be buried at Mt. Solon.
Wilbur H. Schenerlein, Jr., age 76, passed away at St. Joseph's Hospital after falling and hitting his head. He was retired from Marbon/Borg Warner/G E Plastics and was the grandfather of W. Harrison Schenerlein IV who, from time to time, makes the Creston News. Harrison's cousin Dave Welch and his lovely wife Kerri of Peoria Illinois but presently sojourning in Florida came in for the funeral.
Air travelers report that the new TSA screenings are way over the line, especially for those who are crippled, have artificial parts or who are "well endowed". A moslem lobby group made it clear that "their" women were not to be touched and that the Moslem men should "self declare" if they had bombs, weapons, etc. It was noted that the TSA has yet to catch a terrorist but has caused lots of grief for ordinary citizens. There is now talk of the same thing at train, bus & subway stations. Since it isn't PC the federal government does not profile & look for terrorists but is only reactive. Some feel that the intent of the new screenings is to make folks "comfortable" with the coming police state, ala Robert Mugabe. Presently the TSA is advertising for workers on pizza boxes.
The high priest of the church of Anthropomorphic Global Warming, Albert Gore, Jr. was in Athens Greece recently and stated "the tax credit for ethanol was not a good policy." This year the cost to the taxpayers as just $7.7 billion. It takes 1-¼ gallons of gasoline or diesel to make one gallon of ethanol (formerly known as corn likker). He went on to say, "One of the reasons I made that mistake is that I paid particular attention to the farmers of my home state of Tennessee & I had a certain fondness for the farmers in the State of Iowa because I was about to run for president."
Ethanol production takes 41% of the U. S. corn crop and 15% of the global crop according to Goldman Sachs, the big Wall Street firm that is closely allied to the Big Eared One. The ethanol federal mandate has raised food prices and caused chaos in the West Virginia poultry industry, causing the main firm in the state to go bankrupt. The remaining W. Va. processing plants are mainly owned now by a Brazilian company.
Aubrey McClendon's Chesapeake Energy continues to be in the news. They were caught doing valley fills (just like the strip mine coal companies) without permits. One in particular was a scenic waterfall near New Martinsville that they dozed out to make way for a road. An article in the paper down at the Mouth of the Elk noted that when some folks up in Pennsylvania raised thunder after Chesapeake's lease man had their 94 year old grandmother who was in a nursing home sign a lease for $50/acre with no free gas, no protection for water, etc. After some dealing the company upped the ante to $8,000/acre and 20% royalty for a 1/3rd interest in the property. Down in the Haynesville field in Louisiana those who persisted were offered $20,000/acre and 25% royalty or twice what the same companies offer West Virginia residents. Chesapeake claimed that they didn't have to lease everyone and that they would only have to provide an accounting for the interests that were not leased.
EQT, formerly known as Equitable has been working on getting units for Marcellus wells. They want folks to sign leases for nothing and modify old leases to take away the free gas rights. Folks should be very, very careful with what one signs. EQT made it clear that they would not pay royalties based on the money they received and that they "would move the units" before they allowed free gas - something that has been the rule for well over a century.
Heartwood Fund has contractors from another state cutting the pine on the former Westvaco property. Much of the timber is small and far from mature. One outfit that left ditches deep enough to cause giraffes to drag was made to come back and reclaim the roads and mulch. Much of the new "sophisticated" pulpwood harvesting equipment was apparently made for the flatlands not West Virginia hillsides.
Local natural gas sold in October fetched the vast sum of $3.51 which is the equivalent of $14/bbl oil. Not so long back natural gas was selling for $14 which is a tectonic shift in price and supply. The development of the Marcellus, Haynesville, Barnett, Eagle Ford and other shales has created a gas glut so that George Soros, the close ally of the Big Eared One cannot justify importing his LNG (liquefied natural gas) from Indonesia and the former soviet satellites. Now an Australian company, Macquarie Energy is investing $2 billion to export LNG from the United States to energy starved portions of the world. Meanwhile the communist Chinese government is investing over $1 billion in the Eagle Ford shale along with the Norwegian government's Statoil company.
The price of local Pennsylvania grade crude oil dropped to $75.50/bbl.
Charles Russell was calling on Euell Russell at the Miletree nursing home.
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